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Who Is Lying, Keyamo Or House Of Reps?

Even though investigations are still on in the allegation of fraud leveled against the leadership of the House of Representatives, in the purchase of 380 Peugeot saloon cars, by Mr Festus Keyamo, a Lagos-based lawyer, the Chairman, Media and Public Affairs Committee of the House, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, has described him as a liar.

Even though investigations are still on in the allegation of fraud leveled against the leadership of the House of Representatives, in the purchase of 380 Peugeot saloon cars, by Mr Festus Keyamo, a Lagos-based lawyer, the Chairman, Media and Public Affairs Committee of the House, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, has described him as a liar.

Keyamo, in his response, described the lawmakers as funny characters fit to star in the local drama series, "Papa Ajasco." In a statement entitled: ‘Re-Keyamo’s Reaction To Recent Proceedings In The Ethics and Privileges Committee,’ the lawmakers described Keyamo’s accusation of unseriousness leveled against the committee as curious.

The committee asked: "Could this be because his many claims are falling flat in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary put forward by CBN, PAN and the National Assembly management?"

Hon. Eyiboh said Nigerians are bothered that a legal practitioner "should parade forged documents and lie on oath, all in a desperate attempt to sustain his false allegations."

The lawmaker added that Barrister Keyamo’s allegation that a Zenith Bank’s cheque was used in paying for the cars, had been refuted by the Central Bank of Nigeria, Peugeot Automobile Nigeria and the National Assembly Management.

These bodies, he said, have testified that the transactions were done from the capital vote with a CBN cheque. "His statement, coming at this period when the Ethics and Privileges Committee is about to conclude its investigation on the matter, is a ploy to cause distraction from the real issues he raised in the petition.

"It is now clear that Keyamo is a purveyor of falsehood, working on a pre-determined agenda to distract the House. With all the major points of his allegation proved as false, he is now grabbing straws never canvassed before," Hon. Eyiboh stated.

He asked Nigerians to ignore what he called the lawyer’s "unproven allegations" and await the outcome of investigations by the anti-graft agencies on the issue. In his reaction, Barrister Keyamo restated his accusation against the committee that it "belongs to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, and that he is aware of their gimmicks."

"The committee is totally biased. It has already reached a pre-determined conclusion. For them to start calling me names when they have not concluded sitting is enough to show their bias. The committee has degenerated to Papa Ajasco and Company."

On what would happen if the outcome of the investigation was against his expectation, Keyamo said: "I expect the entire House to reject the report. If not, Nigerians would make a fool of the entire House."

The Lagos lawyer had, on Saturday, accused the committee of bias, stressing that some of the members even threatened to beat him up when he appeared before them.

"Nigerians have since lost faith in that committee and I call on Nigerians to reject the committee and whatever is the outcome of their report. That committee cannot deliver justice," Keyamo said. He accused the committee of engaging in shadow-chasing by inviting those not concerned with the case.

"They invited one Umar Farouk to tell a cock-and-bull story as to how some members bribed him or tried to bribe him to blackmail the Speaker. "Conjuring this kind of poor tactics is symptomatic of panic by those who have stolen the people’s money and are keen to steer the argument towards politics," the lawyer argued.

Keyamo said the chairman of the committee stopped him from mentioning the role Zenith Bank played in the transaction, adding that he was surprised when they called CBN to "state that it actually facilitated the payment for the contract when that evidence, in the first place, contradicted what is on record."

He stressed that the major question the committee failed to answer was whether the price paid was for the commodity supplied. "It was shocking to note that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) testified that no Value Added Tax (VAT) was paid on the transaction," he added.

Keyamo also punctured the CBN’s claim that it paid N1.5 billion for the cars. This, he said, was about N800 million short of the actual amount the House claimed it paid for the cars.